Sally Prasch is perhaps the perfect blend of advanced technical skill and intuitive creativity. Her background is in both scientific glassblowing and fine art. She began her career at the age of 13, with Lloyd Moore working as a part-time apprentice at the University of Nebraska and later as a Glassblowing Instructor for the City of Lincoln Recreation Department. She took workshops from some of the best glassblowers of the time, including William Bernstein, Ray Schultz, and Lino Tagliapietra.
Sally attended the University of Kansas from 1977 to 1980 and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art in Glass (Furnace glassblowing) and Ceramics. After college Sally worked in a hot shop and started her glass art business that is still active today. Sally started attending the Glass Art Society Conferences in 1978 and continues to participate by giving demonstrations and by serving on the Glass Art Society Advisory Board. In 1985, Prasch received her Certificate in Scientific Glass Technology from Salem College in New Jersey. Soon afterwards, she obtained a position with AT&T doing large quartz work for the semiconductor industry.
Sally continued her studies and, in 1986, received a degree in Applied Science from Salem College. Later that year she got a job as a Scientific Glassblower and Glass Instructor at the University of Massachusetts where she taught scientific glassblowing and the properties of glass to graduate students in Chemistry and Physics. She has been a member of the American Scientific Glassblowers Society and has participated in seminars on such subjects like Vacuum Technology, Quartz technology, and Glass Sealing.
She soon began to receive recognition for her artistic work and was selected for the Corning New Glass Review in 1993.
Sally Prasch's current work is characterized by the combination of her technical skills and a strong art esthetic. She places other-worldly figures in glowing globes filled with rare gasses and constructs portraits of friends from broken shards picked out of the glass trash barrels. One item she is well known for are goblets made with coiled stems so that they bounce when handled. Her latest work incorporates cast bronze with glass.
Perhaps Prasch’s greatest fulfillment comes from teaching. She has taught flameworking workshops at Urban Glass in New York City, at the famous Niijima Glass School in Japan; Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA; Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC; Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Grove Gas & Light Co, University of CA, San Diego, CA; Ingalena Klenell’s Studio, Sweden and many more.
